Rio Tinto has bought 3000 hectares of grazing land near Townsville on which it plans to grow thousands of trees as the iron ore major pushes into carbon-neutral fuels.

About 750,000 pongamia trees will be planted on the property under a plan to harvest the seeds and refine their oils into a form of renewable diesel to power Rio’s trucks and generators. Rio believes carbon-neutral biofuels will play an important role in curbing emissions in the next decade, given the development of battery-powered mining equipment is expected to take longer than expected.